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Federico Fellini, Adman

I’ve been at work on an upcoming column about a company that produces ads for agencies and marketers. As part of my research for it, I ended up talking a bit with a film director who’s made both movies and ads.

Now, of course, there’s never really been much a bright red line dividing film directors from ad directors, and directors from Ridley Scott to David Fincher started making ads long before they started making movies. Still, said filmmaker brought up a name that I didn’t hadn’t previously associated with advertising: Federico Fellini.

I don’t know if this is the kind of thing that [big exasperated theatrical sigh] EVERYONE knows, but, hell, I didn’t. Fellini did indeed do ads, late in his career, for Campari, Barilla and Banca di Roma.

Fellini for Campari, below, in which the master demonstrates his facility with fantabulous new futuristic forms of technology—oh, excuse me, that’s just an old remote control.